“I never want to do that again!”

They were for the most part fun, imaginative, yet simple and old schooly. As time went on, the games started to mirror the app market and feel more free to play like, which detracted from the experience. That said, after that dark time, Woblyware games bounced back and felt good again. When I saw that Woblyware was going to bring one of its game to consoles first, I was excited. Would this be a pure platformer focused on gameplay again? Does Woblyware still have it?

Let’s find out!

HOW IT PLAYS:

Daggerhood is an insanely hard game that takes patience, fast reflexes, even more patience and a masochistic gamer to enjoy. It’s a fast paced platformer that also demands that you go slow and take your time at times while you figure it out. This isn’t the type of game you are going to be speedrunning by the end of the week. This is the type of game that you are still working on beating at the end of the week.

This is a very, very, very hard game.

Daggerhood has simple controls that work just about right. While I do hate some of the level design for being over the top for needing pixel perfect jumps and timing, it’s doable, even when you don’t think it is. I say that having cussed aloud and rage quit dozens of times already and still had that frustrating, unexplainable itch to come back and play some more. There is seemingly no difficulty progression here. A day can be spent on a single level, and the following ten levels could be a cake walk. These walls are soul-crushing and at times feel more luck than skill.

I haven’t beat Daggerhood yet. I am still in the second to the last world and yea, that is from playing since the game launched. I suck at it, and I’m ok with that. With the dozens of hours sunk into this, I can more than say it is worth its purchase price. I do wish that it wasn’t so sadistically designed, but then again there is a huge market for games like this.

The levels and characters look good and classic Woblyware, but this isn’t going to justify your 4 or 8k TV’s purchase price, but it’s good enough to stare at for hours on end. The sound is fine. Nothing to write home about.

Unfortunately, it also has some random element’s that give you more suffering than need be.

For example, some patrolling baddies will be at the worst place at the worst time, or projectiles, further in the level will have shot something, right where you needed to land. Other times moving platforms will not be where you need them to be 3/4 of the way through the level and cause you to needlessly die. Moments like this kneecap an otherwise brilliant experience.

I hate those parts.

That said, in the middle of all the ultra-difficult and unfair deaths there is brilliance. This game demands a lot from you. It’s punishing and at times cheap. I hate it, but I still keep coming back to it. Normally, that isn’t me. I hate games with pixel perfect jumps. I hate, hate, hate games with where random bullshit causes me to die over and over again, and yet, here I am weeks later, still sucking at this game.

Is it worth your time?

Yes, but only if you are into punishing platformers with a bit of randomization baked in. Usually, this is not my thing, but for some reason, I keep coming back to this game.

Daggerhood is now available for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It’s also coming to iOS soon, but I really, really, really doubt it can be played well on those platforms.